KAFR EL-SHEIKH, Egypt, Oct 2 (Reuters) - Battling corruption
is a top priority for the Muslim Brotherhood man just named as a
provincial governor in Egypt but he faces another problem before
he even begins: while everyone knows graft is there, it has
scarcely ever been investigated.

Saad al-Hoseiny's first weeks in a job once kept for retired
generals offer a glimpse of the knot of problems inherited by
the new Islamist-led administration from decades of autocratic
rule that failed to address the problems of a bloated state.

It also points to the Islamists' early efforts to shake up
the status quo. Hoseiny described a series of field trips that
had caught local officials napping. He is drawing up plans for
development and administrative reform, and newly-recruited
specialists are at work in an office adjoining his own.

"The problems are bigger than I was expecting. But the
potential solutions are many," said Hoseiny, clutching a string
of prayer beads during an interview at his headquarters in the
province of Kafr El-Sheikh, a two-hour drive north of Cairo.

The corruption Hoseiny wants to root out in the Nile Delta
province, with the population of a small country, mirrors that
pervading the Egyptian state. It poses a significant obstacle to
the development plans of the Islamists now in power who are
seeking to eradicate corruption in all branches of government.

"We are in a new era. People must work with honesty and
transparency," Hoseiny, a Brotherhood veteran appointed last
month by President Mohamed Mursi, told Reuters.

Seeking to get a sense of the extent of malfeasance in his
first days on the job, Hoseiny asked his administrative
oversight team for all the information they had on the subject.
"They came to me and said: 'We do not have any corruption
files'," he said. "But I know there is corruption everywhere."

"You find everyone saying this person or that is corrupt and
takes bribes ... So I transfer that person somewhere else."

The meagre wages paid by a state that employs millions of
people are typically identified as the basic cause of much of
Egypt's petty corruption. Egyptians have gotten used to the idea
of paying bribes to get official business done quickly.

Since Hosni Mubarak was deposed in February 2011, both the
former president and other senior officials have been indicted
in bigger corruption cases, charged with making illicit gains
by, for example, selling state land at below market prices.

"By God's good grace, being an honest person surrounded by a
team of honest people ... is a message that there is no place
for the corrupt in this country," Hoseiny said. He said he would
introduce bonuses to reward good performance.

Aged 53 with a great white beard, Hoseiny has been a member
of the Muslim Brotherhood for more than half his life.

"FROM THE STREET"

He was jailed repeatedly by the Mubarak administration. The
last occasion was just before the eruption of the popular
uprising, when he was held together with other Brotherhood
leaders including the man who would become president.

"I come from the street, from among the people," he said,
explaining how his qualifications for the role of governor set
him apart from the military men who went before him.

"I know the rich, I know the poor, and I was jailed 10
times. I even know what criminals get up to."

He has invited citizens to relay their concerns in person on
Wednesday afternoons. Eight hundred people showed up for the
first week, leading to the deployment of a small contingent of
riot police for the purposes of crowd control.

The people are typically seeking housing and jobs, Hoseiny
said. Other problems include inadequate health care, education
and sewage facilities, water pollution and dangerous roads.

Hoseiny said the province's natural resource wealth - he
said it had 12 percent of Egypt's proven natural gas reserves -
should mean a more prosperous future for its 2.9 million
citizens. He wants energy firms working in the province to live
up to their corporate social responsibilities.

He has made a habit of visiting the most run-down parts of
the province, catching local officials off guard.

Hoseiny described how, ahead of one of his field visits, a
local official had spent days cleaning the route he anticipated
the new governor would take - the kind of behaviour typical of
the Mubarak era when it became preferable to hide rather than
deal with problems. "It was all about appearance," he said.

Instead, Hoseiny inspected piles of refuse, to the
embarrassment of the official. "I said to him: 'Do you think I
don't know about this? Now is the chance for us to fix it.'"
(Editing by Mark Heinrich)